You know about the koala, that lovable, huggable, cuddly Australian marsupial so famous for its quiet disposition and love for eucalyptus leaves. You most probably understand that it is unique to Australia, since its diet and environmental requirements preclude it from thriving elsewhere. Koalas can hardly be kept as pets, that is why its substitute is almost ubiquitous in playrooms around the world: the teddy bear. But there are few things you most probably do not know about the koala, and these can surprise you.

Did you know, that

the koala is the inspiration –if not the model-- for the teddy bear. It all started when President Theodore Roosevelt visited Australia and met a koala. They had a blinking contest, having met for the first time, and the bear won. Someone in the crowd remarked the animal looked like the president (or vice-versa?), probably because of the nose, and the name stuck. Some later toy-makers sewed a stuff toy resembling a koala and called it a ‘teddy bear’ in remembrance of the event.

Koala feels like bear because of its fur; it looks like a bear because of its form; it walks like a bear when on the ground; it is in all intents and purposes a bear, but the koala is not a bear. It is a marsupial, those line of exotic animals usually found only Australia. Marsupials have a pouch where they keep their young until it has grown too much to bear.

Koalas eat the leaves of the eucalyptus tree as their bread and butter, yes, but they sometimes also eat acacia leaves and others when necessary. Yet, fossils indicate they ate other leaves long ago, and resorted to the eucalyptus because it became the most easily available chewable in the later evolutionary developments. So the diet was thought to be an evolutionary adaptation to survive.

Did you know, that

male koalas have a bifurcated penis and female koalas have two uteri. But only one baby – called a joey, whether boy or girl— is born and it is less than an inch long at birth. Amazingly, it can right away crawl up into the pouch and find the teat, where it fastens itself for six months, never going out even to pee. Amazing still, when the joey sucks at the teat, the teat grows inside the young animal’s mouth so that the joey cannot remove himself off it. Therefore, for six months he literally hangs by his teat, drinking only a single-flavor milk and in the dark.

and did you know, that

other than man and primates, only koalas have fingerprints in the animal world. But although their mug shots are everywhere in Australia, it is difficult to find their fingerprints since they have two thumbs and in the front paws and one in the hind paws. Moreover, the long nails that help them climb trees wreak havoc on the fingerprint paper. Ah, well…

and did you know, that

koala is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning "no water", referring no doubt to the fact that koalas rarely go in search of water and seem to need very little of it. They are, however, able swimmers and they enter the water voluntarily to make river crossings, after which they lick and swallow the water off their fur. Occasionally they drink from pools of water left after heavy rain.

Because they sleep as much as 18 hours a day, koalas are not social animals. They only have a few trees as home territory where they eat and sleep. Thus you will hardly see many koalas in one place. No slumber parties for them; they don’t visit each other often.

Still, koalas are nice, lovable, unique animals. In fact they are so unique they have been listed as endangered, about to disappear unless helped to survive. So you very few koalas appear outside their territory, unless they are in pictures and photographs.

Koalas were once hunted by Aborigines for food and later by white men for their fur. In 1924 more than 2 000 000 skins were exported and at the turn of the century they almost became extinct because of disease.However, in recent years conservation programmes have resulted in an increase in the koala population